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Plastic manufacturing units beware! State environment minister Ramdas Kadam conducts surprise raids at two companies in Pune
The minister was travelling to Shirdi when he came across a truck near Chakan which was carrying banned plastic items. Later, the minister called revenue officials to join the raids. 225 metric tonnes (MT) of banned plastic bubble sheets were seized.
Ramdas Kadam, state environment minister, on Saturday night conducted a surprise raid at two plastic manufacturing units in Chakan Maharashtra industrial development corporation (MIDC) area and seized 225 metric tonnes (MT) of banned plastic bubble sheets.
The minister was travelling to Shirdi when he came across a truck near Chakan which was carrying banned plastic items. Later, the minister called revenue officials to join the raids.
Then, in a joint action taken by the Maharashtra pollution control board (MPCB), district administration and police department, the minister conducted surprise raids at Agarwal packaging private limited company and Mitali packaging private limited in Khed tehsil. During the raid, 225 MT of banned packaging plastic was found in four godowns.
According to the plastic ban updated notification dated June 30, the state government had asked plastic manufacturing companies to find out an alternate solution (recycling and collection mechanism) by September 30 for plastic products.
YB Sontakke, regional officer at MPCB, said, “The deadline for disposal of manufacturing plastic packaging material was September 30. Hence, the minister conducted this raid to act against illegal manufacturing of plastic being used for packaging. According to the guidelines issued by the state government we will conduct more such raids.”
According to Kadam, most of the manufacturing companies had not developed a buyback and recycling mechanism. “Even though we had extended the deadline by three months (September 30), there was no mechanism developed by these manufacturers,” said Kadam.
The plastic manufacturers units were, however, not happy with the surprise raids. Manoj Bansal, managing director of Agarwal packaging private limited, said, “We are in the business of manufacturing of packaging plastic bubble sheets and related products. We have taken all the necessary permissions from MPCB, despite this, the minister and MPCB conducted raids on our manufacturing units.”
